Phillies Avoid Sweep with Wild Win at Coors

The Phillies held on for a wild 10-9 win at Coors Field to avoid a sweep by the Rockies.

-Ryan Howard went 4-for-5, coming thisclose to hitting for the cycle. His fourth hit was called a single and an error by rightfielder Brandon Barnes. Close call, but I think it was the right one. Good to see him get his stroke going, but will it last?

-Marlon Byrd knocked in two runs, but also struck out twice more. We’ll be discussing that on Phillies Nation TV on Tuesday.

-Jimmy Rollins finished 3-for-4 with a walk and also homered, his third of the season. He pushed his on-base percentage to a robust and un-Jimmy-like .370.

-There’s gotta be concern about Roberto Hernandez and his inability to work deep into games. Ryne Sandberg pulled him after just four innings and 75 pitches; Hernandez allowed six runs on nine hits.

-The Bullpen did it’s best to burn the offense on this day. Jake Diekman allowed a two-run homer to lefty Justin Morneau in the seventh, the first a lefty has ever hit off him. It was also only the fourth homer he’s allowed in his major league career. Antonio Bastardo also gave up a run in the eighth to make it a one run game. Jonathan Papelbon closed it out with a shaky ninth, putting two runners on before getting out of it on a gem of a pick at first base by John Mayberry for out number three.

-Mario Hollands continues to be a hell of a find. He pitched another scoreless frame, his ERA stands at 2.16.

-Troy Tulowitzki destroyed the Phillies in this series, going 8-for-10 with 6 RBI. Kid is a stud and should be an MVP candidate if he can finally stay healthy. Big fan of his game as well as Carlos Gonzalez’s, another guy who can’t seem to stay completely healthy.

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31 Comments

Hogey's Role

April 20, 2014 at 8:51 pm

Too bad they can’t hit on a consistent basis… I’m not terribly worried about Hernandez’ start today, majority of the time pitchers suck in Colorado, what I do worry about is that it does seem like once he gets to 6 innings he is at 100 pitches and totally gassed, he’s got to work on being more efficient…

Hopefully diekman and bastardo can get there issues ironed out, the lefty side of the bullpen is decent, the righty side is terrible and almost non existent excluding papelbon… I’m not terribly impressed with the pitching coach or lack thereof really, he’s terrible

Hogey,
You mean the ghost of Bob “Of The Orange County Choppers Facial Hair Club” McClure? Because he does not exist, just as a spiritual entity. Wild game today. Glad Sandberg ordered batting practice today. Happy Easter all!

I don’t think it’s lack of talent I think everyone of our pitchers is better then what they have shown with the exception of Hollands, because he’s lights out and Rosenberg, I don’t think he has the talent or he just lacks confidence, and lacks a lot of it… Most if not everyone of the starters this year has had at least one outing where they’ve been shelled, and clean innings for the bullpen have been few and far between….
Maybe this is all a coincidence, maybe they all lack confidence or maybe the pitching coach sucks that bad… I’m not really sure but I’d lean toward the latter, of course there’s a chance that the whole team just sucks, not sure lol

The pitching coach has as much to do with a pitcher’s performance as a pitcher’s astrological sign. If any of these guys, including coaches, GMs and PT gurus knew anything about pitching mechanics it would be a safer guess to assume pitchers have been dropping like flies in the league because everyone is doing everything wrong.

Pitching injuries have become to baseball what the concussion is to football and somebody ought to rethink the way pitching arms work and how much stress they’re experiencing at every developmental level.

Nolan Ryan seems to believe pitchers are not throwing enough pitches before being yanked and believes that could the cause of the frighteningly high rash of sore arms and torn ligaments these past years – especially this year and we’re not even out of April. While Ryan’s theory sounds counterintuitive on face, he may have a valid point since starters seldom throw more than 7 innings these days.

All that said, McClure’s expression in the dugout isn’t one bursting with life and lucidness but I hesitate to judge a pitching coach by the guy on the rubber.

Why employ a pitching coach then, he does absolutely nothing at all, can take no responsibility or merit, why the hell would you have one… If i am an owner I question why I’m forking money over for a pitching coach to sit around and watch baseball everyday….

Hmm what about all the credit that Dave Duncan got for turning so many cardinals pitchers around, I guess that was all hocus pocus or voodoo, cause pitching coaches don’t do anything at all….
Wow

Hogey: In the case of the Cardinals their success with pitchers has definitely been aided by black magic. I’m sure they have a statue of Dizzy Dean somewhere and I’m willing to bet it Dizzy’s likeness doesn’t get any older.

Hogey, there’s a very wide spectrum from doing”nothing at all” to making a substantial difference in a pitcher’s effectiveness. The pitching coach keeps track of the condition of each pitcher, who looks good, who’s available, etc. and in-game coaching on pitching to specific batters.

They may fine-tune the pitches somebody has in their arsenal, and occasionally teach a new pitch, but I would think it takes much more than 2 months to master a new pitch.

Dave Duncan had his impact over many years, and he was the exception, not the norm.

Uh…Schmenkman, I’m actually agreeing with you that a pitching coach is useless. They are only needed at the minor league level, where we need new ones! Besides Hamels, what strong starters have we produced compared to other teams? I understand at the big show level that a pitching coach guides, but McClure is zombified. He needs to wake up and watch when guys need to be pulled.

I don’t know about “clearly.” I don’t think the OF touched the ball, and I’ve many times seen poorly played balls scored hits when the fielder doesn’t touch the ball. It was actually a somewhat difficult play once the OF made the (bad) decision to try to get to the ball rather than to stay back on it to get a better bounce. I wonder how that would have been scored if it were a Colorado player and the onus was on the hometown scorer?

I know I’m going to be harassed by him , but I’m wondering where my buddy AFW is after today’s game. Fun game to watch. It is nice to Ryan going to left field and showing off his blazing speed for a triple.
Even though Badtardo and Diekman did not have clean innings. But they didn’t let the HRs bother them and they kept focused and closed out their innings. Especially Diekman after his last outing, didn’t put his head down came back and struck out the side.
Real good playing small ball and getting runs in with less than two outs and runners in scoring position.
A good win hopefully it will carry over into LA.

Impressive on several accounts:
The Phils were tenacious – they did not give up
Paps did not give up the dinger – I dont know how many people thought like I did – the Phils would find a way to lose this game
Impressive since 3 of Ryan’s 4 hits were to center/left center
Good game, very impressive.

Schmenkman, I have no idea whether this is on Sandberg or McLure, but I’d like to see them chart their starters’ pitch counts better. IMO, they are waiting way too long to get the pen up when starters are deep into games.

Rube had no real plan on improving the bullpen. His plan was basically hoping someone would shine and stick basically. This would of been not so bad if he had better talent to choose from. Rosenberg was bad last year other than one good month he had last year. This guy throws 93 MPH straight down the gut with little action on it. In hopes that he can get it by a MLB player. He shaping up to be another of the Phils recent crop of relievers who had K rates and good success at the minors but cant translate it to the majors. Rosenberg should be demoted ASAP at this point. Rube has a bunch of scrubs in the high minors. While i have a basic understanding that some of these guys are just org fillers theres seems to be marginal talent overall.

I totally disagree. In the past three years, Amaro has added Qualls, Durbin, Adams, and Lincoln. He also got Martin and a few others who have some potential. Just because some arms don’t work out you can’t say he isn’t looking for improvement. There’s also Hollands, who wasn’t even close last season, and now Camp, picked up from some other system, is on the team.

Adding arms can cost a lot of money, could push the team past the tax threshhold, and those added arms, like the aforementioned Qualls and Durbin, don’t always prove to be any better than the “scrubs.” Look around the leagues and you’ll see a number of million dollar relievers who aren’t worth a crap.